Tim Litwiller, Jesse Bontreger, and Jake Smucker record an interview between Carrie Lee Kendall and The Flying Dutchmen producer Jon Helmuth.

For 14 years, the River Bend Film Festival made an annual appearance in South Bend, Indiana, playing independent films, giving awards, and hosting independent filmmakers. However, for a variety of reasons, it regularly failed to draw a large crowd from the South Bend community. In 2016, festival director Tim Richardson decided to make a big change and moved the festival to Goshen, Indiana, for the first time. Running from March 31st to April 2nd this year, the festival offered feature films, blocks of short films, award ceremonies, coffee talks with filmmakers, and VIP events at downtown Goshen locations such as The Goshen Theater, Art House, Blank Space, and Ignition Music Garage. It was hectic, exciting 3-day event, and FiveCore Media was there to capture it all.

Tim Litwiller and Jesse Bontreger record an interview between Carrie Lee Kendall and Jim Strouse, Goshen native and writer of People Places Things.

Thanks to long hours from our Goshen College student staff of Jesse Bontreger, Tim Litwiller, Mason Mellinger, and Takoda Friesen, as well as Goshen High School student Karen Ramos, we were able to make it to nearly every event to capture the excitement. We felt very lucky to be involved in the festival during its inaugural run in Goshen. Running a 2-camera crew, our students were able to cover several events in their entirety, including a coffee talk with Goshen College graduate and People Places Things writer Jim Strouse, who won the festival’s Golden Fish award for his outstanding contribution to the festival. Another highlight of the weekend was a live script reading of Strouse’s upcoming (working title) Untitled Breakup Comedy, read by Goshen-area actors. We also had the opportunity to cover a coffee talk with Jordan Hodges, actor and writer of Sandcastles, the winner of Best Feature Film at the festival. Sandcastles was filmed in Goshen and the surrounding area a few years ago and it was the feature film on Friday night of the festival. In addition to these events, we had the opportunity to conduct interviews with four filmmakers on-stage in beautiful Goshen Theater.

The result of the festival? The largest turnout and the most revenue in festival history. The volunteers, sponsors, and overall support that the city of Goshen gave the festival was incredible to see and it was an awesome event for our students to be a part of, allowing them to establish connections with successful Hollywood filmmakers. The festival is already looking ahead to next year and has high hopes for continued growth in Goshen, Indiana. And with opportunities like this for Goshen College film and communication students, we can’t wait for the 2017 River Bend Film Festival.